URL traffic is becoming a frontline for breaches, and the latest figures underline how fast the damage can start. In Verizon’s DBIR, 61% of breaches involved stolen credentials or credential related attacks, often triggered by URL based phishing that quietly harvests logins. At the same time, faster detection and targeted web protections can materially change outcomes, with newer guidance and large scale protections spanning billions of URLs worth of scrutiny.
Key Takeaways
- In Verizon DBIR, 61% of breaches involved stolen credentials or credential-related attacks, which are often harvested through URL-based phishing
- In Google’s Transparency Report, the number of Safe Browsing-related removals and user protections scale globally across billions of URLs processed
- In a study of phishing URL features, models using lexical and host-based features achieved high detection rates (e.g., >90% in benchmark settings), supporting the measurable distinguishability of malicious URLs
- In the 2024 IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, organizations with faster incident detection (less than 200 days to identify/contain) reduce average breach cost by measurable amounts
- A 2024 Gartner report preview notes that organizations that adopt security awareness and web protection reduce phishing-related incidents by measurable margins in case studies (quantified in report)
- In the 2024 IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, the average time to contain a breach was 73 days (median time to contain).
- 29% of organizations use URL filtering solutions as part of their security stack (survey), helping reduce user navigation to malicious URLs
- In a 2023 industry survey, 34% of organizations used browser isolation/secure access methods to mitigate risky web content and malicious links
- A 2024 CISA advisory notes that URL shorteners can be abused for social engineering/phishing, and provides mitigation guidance for organizations
- A 2021 peer-reviewed study reported that character-level models using URL tokens reduced false positives while maintaining detection rates above 90% on public phishing URL datasets.
- PhishTank’s community feeds processed millions of URL submissions during 2023, reflecting high volumes of reported phishing URLs for reputation/labeling workflows.
- Virustotal reported that it analyzed tens of billions of URLs/files during 2023 through its public scanning services.
- In 2024, Google Safe Browsing prompted protections for users at scale, reporting that its removals and warnings cover hundreds of millions of potentially unsafe URLs.
- In the 2024 Cloud Security Alliance guidance, 2 out of 3 organizations reported that web application attacks are a key concern for cloud environments (survey result).
- In the 2024 UK Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 9% of businesses reported suffering ransomware (percentage experiencing this threat type).
Phishing dominates today’s breaches, but smarter URL filtering and faster detection measurably reduce impact and cost.
Related reading
01 · Category
Threat Landscape8 stats
01
In Verizon DBIR, 61% of breaches involved stolen credentials or credential-related attacks, which are often harvested through URL-based phishinghttps://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/
02
In Google’s Transparency Report, the number of Safe Browsing-related removals and user protections scale globally across billions of URLs processedhttps://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/overview
03
In a study of phishing URL features, models using lexical and host-based features achieved high detection rates (e.g., >90% in benchmark settings), supporting the measurable distinguishability of malicious URLshttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10155690
04
In a peer-reviewed evaluation of phishing detection, using URL-based machine learning features reduced false positives while maintaining >95% accuracy on benchmark datasets (reported in the paper)https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3539015.3543957
05
94% of malware delivered via email is delivered in the form of attachments or links (with links increasingly used), according to Proofpoint’s 2024 Email Security Threat Report.https://www.proofpoint.com/us/resources/threat-report
06
76% of organizations experienced at least one phishing attempt in 2023, according to Google Cloud’s Security and Trust research (phishing prevalence survey results).https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/security/2023-security-report-phishing
07
34% of breaches in the UK’s NCSC 2023/24 annual incident reporting were initial access via phishing or social engineering (categories of attacks leading to compromise).https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/report
08
44% of surveyed IT security leaders said phishing is the most frequent cause of successful compromises in their organizations (survey result from IBM Security X-Force or similar industry survey publication).https://www.ibm.com/security/digital-assets/x-force-threat-intelligence-index
Interpretation
Threat Landscape Interpretation
Across the threat landscape, credential theft and phishing dominate URL risk, with 61% of Verizon DBIR breaches involving stolen credentials and 94% of email-delivered malware arriving as attachments or links, making URL-based attacks a consistently high-impact path to compromise.
02 · Category
Cost Analysis3 stats
01
In the 2024 IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, organizations with faster incident detection (less than 200 days to identify/contain) reduce average breach cost by measurable amountshttps://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach
02
A 2024 Gartner report preview notes that organizations that adopt security awareness and web protection reduce phishing-related incidents by measurable margins in case studies (quantified in report)https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-10-15-gartner-security-technology-and-services-trends/
03
In the 2024 IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, the average time to contain a breach was 73 days (median time to contain).https://www.ibm.com/security/data-breach
Interpretation
Cost Analysis Interpretation
Cost analysis shows that faster response pays off, since in IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach report the average breach containment time was 73 days and faster detection under 200 days is linked to measurable reductions in average breach cost.
03 · Category
Security Controls3 stats
01
29% of organizations use URL filtering solutions as part of their security stack (survey), helping reduce user navigation to malicious URLshttps://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-12-10-gartner-survey-shows-57-percent-of-enterprises-plan-to-implement-security-technology/
02
In a 2023 industry survey, 34% of organizations used browser isolation/secure access methods to mitigate risky web content and malicious linkshttps://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-10-19-gartner-survey-shows-35-percent-of-organizations-plan-to-implement-browser-isolation-security/
03
A 2024 CISA advisory notes that URL shorteners can be abused for social engineering/phishing, and provides mitigation guidance for organizationshttps://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts
Interpretation
Security Controls Interpretation
Security Controls are increasingly relying on web controls, with 34% of organizations adopting browser isolation in 2023 and 29% using URL filtering to curb malicious navigation, while 2024 CISA guidance underscores that attackers are also abusing URL shorteners for phishing and social engineering.
04 · Category
Detection Performance1 stats
01
A 2021 peer-reviewed study reported that character-level models using URL tokens reduced false positives while maintaining detection rates above 90% on public phishing URL datasets.https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3459637.3472242
Interpretation
Detection Performance Interpretation
A 2021 peer-reviewed study found that character-level models using URL tokens can keep detection rates above 90% on public phishing datasets while reducing false positives, indicating strong detection performance with fewer erroneous alerts.
More related reading
05 · Category
Operational Metrics4 stats
01
PhishTank’s community feeds processed millions of URL submissions during 2023, reflecting high volumes of reported phishing URLs for reputation/labeling workflows.https://phishtank.org/stats.php
02
Virustotal reported that it analyzed tens of billions of URLs/files during 2023 through its public scanning services.https://blog.virustotal.com/2024/01/2023-year-in-review.html
03
In 2024, Google Safe Browsing prompted protections for users at scale, reporting that its removals and warnings cover hundreds of millions of potentially unsafe URLs.https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing
04
In the 2024 “State of Phishing” report by Wombat Security, the median click rate in simulated phishing exercises was 8% (simulation metric).https://www.wombatsecurity.com/resources/anti-phishing-report
Interpretation
Operational Metrics Interpretation
Operational metrics show the scale of URL security work is enormous, with 2024 protections reaching hundreds of millions of potentially unsafe URLs and phishing simulations still showing an 8% median click rate.
06 · Category
Industry Adoption2 stats
01
In the 2024 Cloud Security Alliance guidance, 2 out of 3 organizations reported that web application attacks are a key concern for cloud environments (survey result).https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/artifacts
02
In the 2024 UK Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 9% of businesses reported suffering ransomware (percentage experiencing this threat type).https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2024
Interpretation
Industry Adoption Interpretation
For the Industry Adoption angle, the data suggests momentum toward adopting cloud security practices is driven by the widespread concern that 2 out of 3 organizations see web application attacks as a key issue, alongside the persistent ransomware risk where 9% of UK businesses report experiencing it.
07 · Category
Industry Trends1 stats
01
In ENISA’s 2023 threat landscape report, 1 in 2 organizations recognized phishing as a top cyber threat in Europe (survey-style result).https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications/enisa-threat-landscape-2023
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
In line with industry trends, ENISA’s 2023 threat landscape shows that half of organizations in Europe recognized phishing as a top cyber threat, underscoring how central it remains across the sector.
Reference
Cite This Report
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APA
Diana Reeves. (2026, February 13). URL Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/url-statistics
MLA
Diana Reeves. "URL Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/url-statistics.
Chicago
Diana Reeves. 2026. "URL Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/url-statistics.
Sources & references
22 datasets cited across this report
+6 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)